10 tons of Hamburger recalled in France after 8 Children Hospitalized with as yet known Strain of E. coli

Eight children have been hospitalized in France with E. coli infections after eating meat that manufacturer SEB said came from Germany, Belgium and Holland and slaughtered and processed in France. The children, the youngest of whom is 20 months old, had eaten defrosted hamburgers. One child has developed HUS.

A spokesman for the Regional Health Agency (ARS) in Lille, northern France, where six (now eight) of the children were hospitalized on Wednesday, said: ‘they are in a serious but not worrying state. Their lives are not at all in danger.’ A seventh (no eight) child was taken to hospital on Thursday, authorities said.

The ‘Steak Country’ burgers were bought in French branches of German supermarket Lidl. SEB said it had recalled 10 tons of the burgers and Lidl said it had removed them from its shelves in France.

Health authorities said the infection was a rare strain of the E. coli bacteria and was not linked to the similar outbreak in Germany.

Bill Marler is an accomplished personal injury lawyer and national expert on foodborne illness litigation. He began representing victims of foodborne illness in 1993, when he represented Brianne Kiner, the most seriously injured survivor of the Jack in the Box E. coli O157:H7 outbreak, resulting in her landmark $15.6 million settlement. Marler founded Food Safety News in 2009.

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I received this email:
I have currently no information about the strain.
As you know, health authorities said that is “a rare strain of E. coli” but with it’s not the German strain, E. coli O104:H4 but some others said “a different variant strain of STEC”.
One other information, on May, 23, there was a recall of cheesburgers in the same plant but with a different name of the society (Cerf and Seb are in the group) :
Cheeseburgers sold frozen at Auchan are recalled because of the presence of Escherichia coli O157:H7 which can cause gastrointestinalenteritis, said Friday in a statement the company that manufactures Cerf.
You can have the Google translation in English here, http://translate.google.fr/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Falimentation.gouv.fr%2Frappel-de-cheeseburgers-surgeles&sl=fr&tl=en&hl=&ie=UT

About Bill Marler

Bill Marler is an accomplished personal injury and products liability attorney. He began litigating foodborne illness cases in 1993, when he represented Brianne Kiner, the most seriously injured survivor of the Jack in the Box E. coli O157:H7 outbreak.